Yahoo – AFP,
Stacey KNOTT, 27 December 2017
Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world's largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground.
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| A young man carries an old refrigerator at Agbogbloshie dumpsite in Accra |
Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world's largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground.
"It's
survival and dystopia," says the 21-year-old British-born Ghanaian,
surveying the stretch of wasteland around him as dense plumes of acrid smoke
rise into the air.
Awuah-Darko
and his university friends have ambitious plans for the sprawling Agbogbloshie
dumping ground in Ghana's capital, Accra.
In January
this year, he co-founded the non-profit Agbogblo.Shine Initiative, which
encourages people working at the dump to turn waste into high-end furniture.
The dump
workers typically risk exposure to harmful fumes by burning obsolete and
unwanted appliances such as mobile phones, computers, televisions and plastics
that are brought to Ghana from around the world.
After
burning, they salvage and resell copper and other metals from these leftovers
of modern consumer culture.
The dump
and scrapyard sit next to the heavily polluted Odaw River in the slum-like
area, home to an estimated 40,000 people.
The United
Nations has said that salvaging materials for recycling provides income for
more than 64 million people in the developing world.
Ghana is
said to have the largest informal recycling industry in Africa and imports some
40,000 tonnes of this e-waste annually.
 |
Ghanaian
artist Joseph Awuah-Darko and his university friends have ambitious
plans for
the sprawling Agbogbloshie dumping ground, encouraging people working
at the
dump to turn waste into high-end furniture
|
'We are
suffering here'
When
Awuah-Darko first saw the piles of circuit boards, wires and plastics at
Agbogbloshie he decided he wanted to use his artistic talent as a force for
change.
So he set
up the Agbogblo.Shine project with Cynthia Muhonja, a fellow student from
Ashesi University, about an hour's drive from Accra.
They
repurpose the electronic scraps, "upcycling" them into furniture, and
offer training for the young men who work at the dump to create the pieces.
The
students straddle two worlds -- a privileged life on the lush campus of a
private university in a forested area, and the harsh reality of life for some
of Ghana's poorest people.
Mohamed
Abdul Rahim, who is in charge of about 20 young men, has been working at
Agbogbloshie since 2008.
The
25-year-old from the north of Ghana works 12-hour days, six days a week. On
average the workers make only about 20 cedi each ($4.50, 3.75 euros) a day.
He knows
the work is bad for his health but doesn't see any other option. However he is
optimistic that Awuah-Darko's initiative will help.
"We are suffering here because the heat is there, the smoke, too, it disturbs us. If we see good work we will go join it and leave this," he says.
 |
Agbogbloshie
dumpsite in Accra sits next to the heavily polluted Odaw River
in a slum-like
area that is home to an estimated 40,000 people
|
"We are suffering here because the heat is there, the smoke, too, it disturbs us. If we see good work we will go join it and leave this," he says.
The toxic
fumes hurt his lungs, while his hips and waist ache from carrying heavy objects
to burn. The money he earns supports his mother, wife and three children.
The ground
he works on is black, muddy and littered with plastic bags, cables, bottles and
broken shoes alongside smashed television sets and computer monitors.
Workers use
plastics and polystyrene as fuel to melt down components to extract the copper.
Grandfather clock
Awuah-Darko
recognises that the people of Agbogbloshie "are basically in pursuit of
what we all want, which is a better life".
"Unfortunately,
the side effects or the by-product of this is the detriment of their
health," he said.
He hopes
that his initiative will not only improve their lives but also the planet, as
waste from the site is given another life.
Awuah-Darko's first upcycled work is a grandfather clock, made from a galvanised car axle, aluminium and part of a discarded wall clock.
 |
When
Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko first saw the piles of circuit boards,
wires
and plastics at Agbogbloshie he decided he wanted to use his artistic talent
as
a force for change
|
Awuah-Darko's first upcycled work is a grandfather clock, made from a galvanised car axle, aluminium and part of a discarded wall clock.
Two
high-end hotels in Accra are currently vying to buy the unusual timepiece, he
said, and with such interest he has plans to create more and expand operations.
Awuah-Darko
sees a future where around 100 people from Agbogbloshie can leave their harmful
work to build furniture.
He also
wants to exhibit the creations at major galleries around the world and sell
them at auction houses.
That would
be a world away for someone like Mohammed Sofo, a thin 26-year-old with small
tattoos on his face.
But Sofo
wants to live in a world where he does not have to burn waste to survive.
"Some
people think we are bad because they think we are mad persons," he said.
"If we
get money no one will look at us like that. Some day will come when no one will
be working here."
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